2015 EUROPEAN READING CHALLENGE

The European Reading Challenge
January 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016


THIS IS THE SIGN UP PAGE (SEE LINKY BELOW)

TO POST A REVIEW, GO TO THIS PAGE.

TO ADD YOUR WRAP UP POST, GO TO THIS PAGE.


Welcome to the 2015 European Reading Challenge – where participants tour Europe through books.  And have a chance to win a prize.  Please join me for the Grand Tour!

The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour. (See note about the UK, below)

What counts as "Europe"? It looked like the list might change for 2015, what with Scotland voting on independence, Catalonia coming close, and Russia trying to take back the Ukraine. But for now, we will stick with the same list of 50 sovereign states that fall (at least partially) within the geographic territory of the continent of Europe and/or enjoy membership in international European organizations such as the Council of Europe. This list includes the obvious (the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy), the really huge Russia, the tiny Vatican City, and the mixed bag of Baltic, Balkan, and former Soviet states.

Note: Technically, the United Kingdom is one country that includes England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.  So one book from any one of these four should count as your one book for that one country. I'm not going to be a stickler about it because challenges should be about fun not about rules. However, when it comes to winning the Jet Setter prize, only one book from one of the UK countries will count.

Here is the list, in alphabetical order: Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and Vatican City.


LEVELS OF PARTICIPATION

Five Star (Deluxe Entourage): Read at least five books by different European authors or books set in different European countries.

Four Star (Honeymooner): Read four qualifying books.

Three Star (Business Traveler): Read three qualifying books.

Two Star (Adventurer): Read two qualifying books.

One Star (Pensione Weekender): Read just one qualifying book.


JET SETTER PRIZE

The participant who reads and reviews the greatest number of qualifying books (more than five) will get a $25 gift card to Powell's Books (can be used in store or on line).  Participants living in Europe will get a $25-equivalent gift card to the Amazon store in your country, if possible. If you live in a country where neither Powell's nor Amazon will work, then sorry, you are out of luck.

Each book must be by a different author and set in a different country. This means that only one book from one of the four UK countries will count.  Only books reviewed count towards the prize.

OFFICIAL RULES
  • Read all books between January 1, 2015 and January 31, 2016.  I like having 13 months so there is extra time to finish after the holidays.  However, if you participated in the 2014 European Reading Challenge, you can only count books read in January 2015 for one year -- either the end of the 2014 challenge or the start of the 2015 challenge -- you don't get to count one book for both challenges. 
  • Sign up here using Mr. Linky under the "PARTICIPANTS" heading below. Please use a link to your challenge post, not your blog home page.   
  • If you do not have a blog, please leave a comment below with the level you are signing up for, and your list of books if you want to name them now, and I will add you to the list.
  • You do not have to commit to your choices now; you can change your mind about books at any time.
  • Overlap with other challenges is allowed -- and encouraged! Have ideas for good overlapping challenge opportunities? Please leave links in comments.
  • Re-reads count.  Audiobooks count.  E-books count.  Self-published books count.
  • As you progress, please link to your reviews on the review list page.  Reviews are not necessary, unless you are going for the prize, in which case only books reviewed count.  If you do not have a blog, put your reviews or reports in a comment on this post. When you finish, please link to your wrap-up posts on the wrap-up page.
  • You can copy and paste the button. Or, if you want me to send you the code, please leave a comment with an email and I will. I cannot figure out the fancy ways of giving button instructions.

PARTICIPANTS: SIGN UP HERE
(To post a review, go to this page)







25 comments :

  1. Yow, I've never been first to sign up before.

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  2. I'm back again. My goal is to read at least 5.
    Thanks.

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  3. So excited to participate. 2015 will be my first year blogging and my first year doing a challenge so I'm dying to get started!

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  4. Back for another year. Thanks for hosting again!

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  5. I'll post my sign-up soon, but I did want to mention that this overlaps well with my Books in Translation Challenge. Thanks for hosting again!

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. First Reading Challenge I've ever embarked upon. Hoping to do one book per month

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  8. Five books seems pretty easy!

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  9. I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack!
    Sign me up!

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  10. Can't wait for this challenge! My goal is 5 books. Thanks for hosting!

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  11. Hi! Found your reading challenge while blog hopping and wanted to join, I've posted and linked at my blog, Food for Thought. Have a great day!

    Sherrie

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  12. This sounds fun
    Will definitely shoot for 5
    Curious ~ Books like the Cotton Malone series in which they often travel through different countries ~ how would those work?

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  13. Hi !
    As I didn't do a very good job of the 2014 challenge, I sign up again to do better than 5 !
    Thanks for hosting again !

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  14. this is my fist European tour and i chose six destinations.

    bon voyage to everyone! ;)

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  15. Hi, my first round of reading challanges (outside of the goodreads one) - I am going for 6 European destinations.

    http://BooksChatter.blogspot.co.uk

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  16. BTW, please remove 30. I entered an incorrect URL. The correct URL was provided in 31.

    Apologies!

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  17. Books Chatter: I would remove #30, but for some reason, it is not letting me get into the edit mode. I will try again later.

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  18. Hello again... I really made a mess last night...
    both entries are wrong... (sorry!)

    the actual url is http://bookschatter.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/challenge-european-2015.html

    I will submit again... lucky n. 32...

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  19. I managed to put my comment to the wrong year, but I'm still looking forward to this :)

    Marcelle - lesserknowngems

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  20. I love this challenge! Will you host it for 2016?? :-)

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